Sunday, December 12, 2010

Injuries Down the Middle for Minnesota

A couple of injury concerns hit the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night and it took a couple of regular veterans out of their line-up for their game against the Kings. Both Matt Cullen and John Madden were left out of the line-up, Cullen due to a groin injury and Madden's ailment was undisclosed. The Wild didn't seem to miss a beat without them, winning another one of their signature tight games, 3-2 in overtime.

Cullen has been a pleasant surprise as an unrestricted free agent signing in the Summer, he has picked up 19 points in 27 games for the team.  Cullen, who has normally been a checking line centre in his career, has found some time on the Wild power play, which has been good for him and he has been afforded new opportunities to score some points this year.

Madden, a career checking line centre, isn't really known for his scoring talents, but hasn't been too bad, considering his role, scoring 4 goals and 3 assists in 27 games for the Wild this season.

ImplicationsSpeaking more to how good Cullen's season has been, he was a 1st round selection in the first waiver draft of the season, taken by Peter 15th overall a couple of weeks ago.  When the waiver draft positions were determined at the end of Week Eight, Peter was sitting in 6th place in the standings, but has since dropped to 7th, currently losing out on a tie-breaker to fall down that extra position.  Peter currently sits 18 points out of the money at the moment and needs his team to be healthy to climb up.

Link to the Injury/News Page

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